Airlines love code-shares. They allow carriers to market and sell and advertise flights to destinations to which they don’t actually fly.

From a consumer point of view, there aren’t many benefits. But airlines are more likely to help out with a delay or missed connection if all flights are on one ticket. On the other hand, a codeshare flight can lull passengers into a false sense of security and have real disadvantages.

As I write this post, it’s not a great weather day for San Francisco International Airport — to put it mildly. It’s a cool, very cloudy day, and with the airport’s parallel runway configuration, that means they can only use one runway at a time.

US Airways and Delta Air Lines are moving to eliminate transferring baggage from their flights to connection flights of other airlines. This will present consumers with a major hassle, especially for international flights.

International nonstops flights are great, but they aren’t available to most destinations. When planning travel, many travelers go for the shortest total time, however, the connection point can often be a more important factor.

Lost luggage is the bane of the traveler, happening far too often. Ned Levi offers some tips and his own personal rules to help you prevent your luggage from being lost, and minimize the impact if it is.

In an ideal travel world, all fights would be non-stop. But realistically, that isn’t going to happen. If anything, airline cost-cutting and cutbacks mean less and less of those non-stops. Especially as airlines reduce their presence at one-time hubs. St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham and Cincinnati all come to mind as airports with reduced non-stop options. […]

What’s the big idea?

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